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OUR VIEW: Better communication needed between board, city officials

Published: Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.

Gadsden officials have long sought a change in the law concerning the Civil Service Board and its authority to hire and fire the city’s police and fire chiefs. Recently, some of those officials had the Civil Service Board on their minds for another reason.

No one liked the situation wherein the city was closing fire stations on a rotating basis because of a shortage of personnel. The semantics of how the city got to that point are important, but last week found council members questioning the solution. Justifiably, we believe.

The fire department has been operating at less than full capacity in terms of the number of firefighters for some time. A change in city benefits led to additional firefighters retiring as of Dec. 1, so a difficult situation was getting worse. Mayor Sherman Guyton and city officials said they would act quickly to hire replacements, but the Civil Service Board’s mass hiring Nov. 30 of 20 new firefighters apparently caught them off guard.

Admissions during the interview process of past drug use by two candidates — and sales of illegal drugs by one of them — raised the level of concern among the council to the point the members talked about it in their public meetings last week. Even the Civil Service Board was divided over the hiring, with member Jason Stinson declining to vote because of the drug use admissions.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Public Safety Committee Chairman Ben Reed was particularly vocal. Reed said he would be willing to overlook a youthful indiscretion or two, but that he had real concerns about the admission of drug sales. He said he wished the Civil Service Board had discussed its procedures with the committee.

Meeting with the council committee isn’t required of the Civil Service Board, and routine actions of the board don’t merit that much attention. That would fall into the category of overkill. A mass hiring of 20 firefighters is far from routine, however, and given that two of the candidates had checkered pasts, the Civil Service Board would have been wise to at least let city officials know what it was considering. That’s not overkill, it’s good communication and common courtesy.

We hope that the city never again finds itself in a situation where it needs to hire 20 firefighters or police officers. However, if circumstances do lead to such a situation, we hope there will be more communication between the Civil Service Board and the people elected to govern the city.

<p>Gadsden officials have long sought a change in the law concerning the Civil Service Board and its authority to hire and fire the city's police and fire chiefs. Recently, some of those officials had the Civil Service Board on their minds for another reason. </p><p>No one liked the situation wherein the city was closing fire stations on a rotating basis because of a shortage of personnel. The semantics of how the city got to that point are important, but last week found council members questioning the solution. Justifiably, we believe.</p><p>The fire department has been operating at less than full capacity in terms of the number of firefighters for some time. A change in city benefits led to additional firefighters retiring as of Dec. 1, so a difficult situation was getting worse. Mayor Sherman Guyton and city officials said they would act quickly to hire replacements, but the Civil Service Board's mass hiring Nov. 30 of 20 new firefighters apparently caught them off guard.</p><p>Admissions during the interview process of past drug use by two candidates — and sales of illegal drugs by one of them — raised the level of concern among the council to the point the members talked about it in their public meetings last week. Even the Civil Service Board was divided over the hiring, with member Jason Stinson declining to vote because of the drug use admissions.</p><p>At Tuesday's meeting, Public Safety Committee Chairman Ben Reed was particularly vocal. Reed said he would be willing to overlook a youthful indiscretion or two, but that he had real concerns about the admission of drug sales. He said he wished the Civil Service Board had discussed its procedures with the committee.</p><p>Meeting with the council committee isn't required of the Civil Service Board, and routine actions of the board don't merit that much attention. That would fall into the category of overkill. A mass hiring of 20 firefighters is far from routine, however, and given that two of the candidates had checkered pasts, the Civil Service Board would have been wise to at least let city officials know what it was considering. That's not overkill, it's good communication and common courtesy.</p><p>We hope that the city never again finds itself in a situation where it needs to hire 20 firefighters or police officers. However, if circumstances do lead to such a situation, we hope there will be more communication between the Civil Service Board and the people elected to govern the city.</p>